Lenovo will launch an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet this year

CHINESE COMPUTER MAKER Lenovo could release a tablet running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) before the end of the year.

The firm already has a handful of Android tablets and now could be the first to launch one with ICS. The 10.1in device will not only have the latest version of Android but also Nvidia's recently announced Tegra 3 processor, according to Engadget.

The processor will be backed by 2GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM and there will be, as in most tablets, a rear facing camera of unknown specifications. There will be a full size USB port, a 'fusion-skin' body, whatever that is, and a finger print scanner that will also double as an optical joystick.

This is all the information we have so far but if this does tip up then it will be, as far as we know, the first tablet to come with ICS. We thought that honour might go to the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime but it was announced with Android 3.2 Honeycomb and will be updated early next year.

From the pictures, the tablet has a square edge similar to the original Ipad. We doubt it will be as thin as the Apple Ipad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the Transformer Prime, which are all less than 9mm thick. µ